A Boy's Fate
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: In the sequel to the author's Let Them Stare, Wolverine goes after the attacker, but some one follows him.


Title: "A Boy's Fate"  
Author: Pirate Turner  
Rating: PG  
Spoilers: Pirate Turner's "Let Them Stare"  
Summary: In the sequel to the author's "Let Them Stare", Wolverine goes after the tp'er, but some one follows him.  
Disclaimer: Jean Grey, Ororo "Storm" Munroe, Logan/Wolverine, and the X-Men are © & TM Marvel comics and are used without permission. All other characters are © & TM their respective owners and are used without permission. Everything else is © & TM Pirate Turner. The author makes absolutely no profit from this story.

He ran through the forest on silent feet with only the full moon to light his path. The wind shifted, and he paused for just a second to sniff again. Finding the scent once more, he continued after his prey.

The blonde teenager finally slowed. His hands dropped to his knees, and he bent over, gasping for breath. He had never ran so fast in any of his games before, but this was no game. This was real, terrifying life, and he had nearly been caught by the freaks. There was no telling what they would have done to him if they had found him.

Suddenly, a savage growl sounded from just behind him, and Duncan whirled around, eyes wide and filled with terror, only to find a figure hurtling toward him. Wolverine dropped onto the boy's chest, the momentum knocking Duncan to the ground. The football star started to protest but stopped abruptly when he felt cold steel pressing against his jaw. His wide eyes questioned why he had been chosen for this fate.

"Ya tried ta tp my home," Wolverine snarled out. "'Sides, after the way ya tried ta use Red, I oughta just slice yer throat fer the principal of the matter." Duncan's face went even paler as he heard the mutant's words and witnessed his doom in the other man's eyes; he didn't dare do so much as even move one muscle.

Just as suddenly as his attack's growl had came, thunder and lightning filled the dark night sky. "Wolverine," a voice that was somehow both gentle and commanding at the same time spoke as a black woman with long, flowing, white hair dropped from the sky.

"Ya shouldn't be here, Stormy," he growled without looking at her.

"Think about what you are doing, Wolverine. He is only a child."

"Maybe so," Wolverine growled out, his eyes flashing dangerously, "but he still should've known better than ta mess wit' Xavier's. He thinks we're all freaks; I'll show him the kind o' damage a freak can do."

She landed behind him and walked gracefully toward him. She reached out and laid a gentle, gloved hand on his shoulder. "I understand why you want to do this, Wolverine, but think about this. Humans do not understand us, and they fear what they do not understand. We have gifts that are beyond anything they will ever possess. As long as we use our gifts for good, they have no reason to fear us, but it is when we begin to use our powers for evil that they are granted reasons for their fear."

"This ain't 'bout good an' evil, Stormy," Wolverine growled in response.

"No. However, Duncan did not physically harm any one. I am not condoning what he did, Wolverine; indeed, I am tempted to simply turn my back, walk away, and let you finish what you have begun here."

"Then why don't cha?"

"Quite simply because it would not be right. He has hurt Jean grievously. He trespassed on our home and was going to destroy its beauty with his prank. Yet still he did no physical harm. If you hurt him now, you might well teach him that playing such pranks are dangerous, but you will also teach him something else. If you do this, Wolverine, you will prove his fear right and will teach him to hate our kind for the rest of his life. Is that what you want?"

"Storm . . . " He growled low in the back of his throat, but the fury in his eyes was slowly beginning to calm.

"I am not going to leave, Wolverine," she told him, her voice gentle though her tone left no room for argument. "You have been given a very rare and special chance, my friend. You hold a boy's fate in your hands."

"Tell me sumthin' I don't know," he growled. "One slip o' the claw, an' he's dead."

"But would you so readily kill a _child_?" she asked. "Look at him, Wolverine. He is frozen in terror. You have already scared him so badly that he will never again act before considering the consequences. You alone can decide, Wolverine: Does his life end now, so soon and before he even experiences adulthood, or is he granted a second chance, a chance to improve, a chance to fight his impulses to fear what he does not understand and harm that that he fears?"

Though Duncan did not realize it, Ororo's wise words had finally hit the rest of the way home with Logan. Duncan was so full of anger; he had known a boy like that once. That boy had been so angry at everything else in the world around him, and Duncan's anger was fueled by his fear. If that boy had not been given a second chance, he would not have lived to be the man that he had come to be, but that second chance had saved him; he was still filled with anger but was no longer needlessly cruel. Instead, he now fought evil, had found a home, and was finding a family and a place where he at least somewhat seemed to belong at long last. Could a second chance also prove to do so much for Duncan?

Ororo's eyes never left the two, but she did take one step back as Logan slowly lifted himself up off of the boy. Wolverine straightened and sheathed his claws before looking back down at the frightened teenager. "Don't ya dare show up again at Xavier's. If ya do, Stormy might not be 'round ta save yer bacon the second time."

Duncan's eyes flitted swiftly between the two mutants, and he finally managed to swallow the lump in his throat. Still, he dared not speak. "Go on," the man growled. "Get outta here, kid, but don't ya ever forget this moment an' that a _mutant_ let ya go when he could've killed ya." Duncan again looked from the man to the woman and then back again to the man. He scurried backwards on the ground until he was several feet away from the two before jumping to his feet and running for his very life.

Logan slowly turned back to look at Ororo, his head tilted slightly downwards. "It almost got me, 'Ro," he spoke quietly. "The beast almost got the better o' me."

Ororo reached out to him and gently lifted his chin with her hand, raising his eyes to look up into hers. "Almost does not count, Logan. You fought it, and you won," she spoke softly.

"Only 'cause o' ya," he admitted. "Ya talked me down."

"I shall do so again should the need arise."

"But what if yer not there?" he asked.

"I'll always be with you in spirit, Logan, but should that not be enough . . . " she paused, searching his eyes before concluding, " . . . never forget that first little boy in your life that was given a second chance."

"How can I," he asked, his voice unusually soft, "when that boy was me?"

**The End**


End file.
